Medically evacuated to the U.S.
As of October 6, 2014, five Americans have been evacuated to the U.S. for treatment after contracting Ebola in West Africa.[63] Kent Brantly, a physician and medical director in Liberia for the aid group Samaritan's Purse, and co-worker Nancy Writebol were infected while working in Monrovia.[64][65][66] Both were flown to the United States at the beginning of August for further treatment in Atlanta's Emory University Hospital.[67] On August 21, Brantly and Writebol recovered and were discharged.[68]
On September 4, a Massachusetts physician, Rick Sacra, was airlifted from Liberia to be treated in Omaha, Nebraska at the Nebraska Medical Center. Working for Serving In Mission (SIM), he is the third U.S. missionary to contract EVD.[69] He believes he probably contracted Ebola while performing a caesarean section on a patient who had not been diagnosed with the disease. While in hospital, Sacra received a blood transfusion from Kent Brantly, who had recently recovered from the disease. On September 25, Sacra was declared Ebola-free and released from the hospital.[70]
On September 9, the fourth U.S. citizen who contracted the Ebola virus arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment. The identity of the patient, a doctor working for the WHO in Sierra Leone, was not released.[71] He was scheduled to receive a blood or serum transfusion from a British man who had recently recovered from the disease.[72] In addition, on September 21, a CDC employee was flown back to the United States after low risk exposure with a healthcare worker. Currently he shows no symptoms and is being monitored. The CDC announced he poses no risks to his family or the United States.[73] On September 28, a fourth American doctor was admitted to National Institutes of Health hospital.[74]
On October 2, NBC News photojournalist, Ashoka Mukpo, covering the outbreak in Liberia, tested positive for Ebola after showing symptoms.[75] Four other members of the NBC team, including Dr. Nancy Snyderman, were being closely monitored for symptoms.[76] Mukpo was evacuated on October 6 to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for treatment in their isolation unit.[63]
Another doctor was evacuated from Sierra Leone after suffering a needle prick injury while treating Ebola patients and developing a fever. He was treated at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center where he was found not to have Ebola and was released.[77]
Biocontainment units in the U.S.
There are four specialized biocontainment units in the United States: the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where Mukpo and Sacra were treated; the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland; St. Patrick Hospital of Missoula, Montana;[78] and Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where Brantley, Writebol and the unnamed patient had gone after contracting Ebola.[75]
